- Center Framed
- Indoor
- Soft Light
- Playful
- Pet
- Natural Light
- Middle Thirds
- Laughing
- Funny
- Directional Light
- Fun
- full body
- Free
- finland
- Energetic
- Dog
- Window Light
The story behind the image
During the getting ready, our bride had her fluffy little buddy with her in the room the whole time. And when it came time to take the bridal shots, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a few shots of those two together.
As any dog owner would know, having some awesome shots of you and your fluffies is always something special.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We asked our bride if her little dog knew a few tricks or something that he could show off to the camera and when she answered with “High Fives”, we simply encouraged them to go right ahead. This wasn’t a shot about a perfect pose, it was one about a fun little moment between best friends.
What did you say?
Does he know any tricks? oh! High five? Give him some high fives! Don’t worry about us, just hang out and play with your little doggo. We’ll shoot from the side
Composition
Since the room that our bride was having her bridal portraits taken in was incredibly beautiful, we wanted to keep enough of it in the frame to show the viewers where she was. We framed both her and her doggo in the lower 2/3rds which gives them enough dominance in the frame to take the attention – but also leaves enough breathing room above them to show everyone where they are.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Since we crouched down and shot this in portrait orientation, we chose to use our live view. This not only helped us get a more comfortable angle, but it also allowed us to more accurately see what we were focusing on.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Brides face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/1600 @ f/2.2 ISO400 WB-Auto
The way the EXIF is written out follows the common photographic method (with the inclusion of White Balance at the end). Here it is broken down:
Shutter Speed @ Aperture ISO White Balance.
Light & Weather
As the room was painted white, with a white ceiling and white flooring, it was like a beautiful, giant softbox. That being said, we still didn’t have too much light in the room to make everything soft. We did however have some large windows to play with. Just off to the left of our frame was a large window letting in the “key” light on our bride, and the window behind her created a very gentle rim light which helped to separate them from the background.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Indoor
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
The edits are made to be warmer with a big focus on skin tones and light play with shadows and highlights. A few minor local adjustments were made (Gradient and Brush) as well as finishing off with a fine layer of grain. The whites are not blown out nor are the blacks 100% crunched.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
Working with animals can be challenging if they also feel the nerves of the day. It’s hard for them to concentrate when so much is going on around them.
Solutions
Fortunately, this little guy was incredibly cool and all he wanted to do was be with his “mama”. We made sure to burst-shoot so that we could capture this exact moment as it happened and not have to keep repeating it.
Location
Location Name
Private Home
Location aDDRESS
Helsinki, Finland
Loation Type
Private Home / AirBnB / Apartment
Country
Finland
If you ever get asked to photograph the wedding of a fellow photographer – it’s normal to feel a bit more nervous. But, if you look at it differently you’ll realize that they picked you out of a whole bunch of other photographers because they really like you and your work.
If any of your subjects happen to have their pet with them on the wedding day, definitely find a way to get a few awesome shots of them together. It doesn’t have to be during the getting ready, or even the couple shoot – it could be during the reception. But just make sure it happens because it will mean a whole lot to them to have these moments captured.
